Wheel assembly for suitcases or the like



Dec. 1, 1953 w, DAV|$ 2,661,220

WHEEL ASSEMBLY FOR SUITCASES DR THE LIKE Filed Oct. 1, 1949 INVENTOR 2i FRANCIS W. DAVIS Patented Dec. 1, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WHEEL ASSEMBLY FOR SUITCASES' OR THE LIKE Francis W. Davis, Belmont, Mass. Application October 1, 1949, Serial No. 1l9,154 Claim, (Cl. 280*39) have been devised for mounting it on wheels so that it can be trundled with far less effort. Such devices must necessa ily p e t b he o tour of h uitcase w en i u e, but shoul be par ly or wholly r trac ile so pa requ r d by the sui -cas will no be ncreased excessively by reason of projecting devices. On the other hand, it is desirable also that not too much of the cubic capacity of the suit-case be devoted to housings for such devices, as that reduces by so much the space available for articles to be packed therein.

According to the present invention, wheels are provided on brackets which. can be folded with the wheels. a ainst a surface of the suit-case so that they will proiectaminimumdistance from he suit-ca e consistent. with being wholly outside of the normal contour of the suit-case. The folding brackets are furthermore detachably mounted on plates which are easily and permanently secured to the outside of, the case. The plates, brackets and wheels can thus be sold and used as an accessory which can be mounted readily on a case by the use of ordinary tools and without any alteration of the case itself other than the drilling of some holes for screws or rivets to secure the anchor plates.

For a more complete understanding of the invention, reference may be had to the following description thereof and to the drawing, of which- Figure 1 is a side elevation of a suit-case with an embodiment of the invention attached thereto, in position for use;

Figure 2 is a front elevation of the same;

Figure 3 is a side elevation, on a larger scale, of one of the wheel assemblies embodying the invention;

Figure 4 is an end elevation of the same, the folded position being indicated in dotted lines;

Figure 5 is a section on the line 55 of Figure 3; and

Figure 6 is a fragmentary elevation of the assembly viewed from the end opposite to that shown in Figure 4.

The invention is illustrated and is hereinafter described as applying to a suit-case, but it is evident that it can be used with other equivalent articles.

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A suit-case I0 is shov n in Figures 1 andz, this case having attached thereto a pair of wheel assemblies embodying. the invention. One such wheel assembly is illustrated in Figures 3 and 4 and comprises an anchor plate [2 which, as in.- dicatedin Figure 5 anchor plate is provided with a couple of holes [8: through which suitable fastening elements, such as screws, bolts or rivets, may be inserted to Secure the plate permanently to a wall of the suit-case It or to an end of the top of the case, as indicated in FigureZ.

The a h l e s intended t receive and hold a base plate 20 having convergingside edges adapted to slide in under the bent-over margins Hi and is of the anchor plate l2. To. prevent looseness between the base plate and the anchor plate, asuitable number of bosses 2| are swaged at the side margins of the base plate to increase the effective thickness of the mar ns so that they will have a snug fit in the channels formed by the inturned flanges l4 and It of the anchor plate.

plane of the base plate. The end portion 23 of this strip is curled into tubular form to receive a hinge pin 24. The other hinge leaf is a part of a bracket 26 which may be made of two sheet metal blanks suitably shaped, then welded or riveted together. blanks have complementary semi-cylindrical hinge pin and are shaped to form a locking nose 36. Other portions of these plates form arms 32 and 34 of a fork between which is revolubly mounted a wheel 40 by suitable means such as a short shaft 4|.

The base plate 20 has an extension 42 at the smaller end thereof, bent at right angles to the plate itself. This extension has a rectangular adapted to receive the nose 36 so as to lock the bracket 26 in a posiis the position shown in Figures 1 to 4.

As indicated in Figure 3, a gap is left between the tubular portion 23 of the base plate and the has converging side edges; Along these side edges the margins are bent ward to form inturned flanges I 4 and #6. This.

tubular portion 28 of the bracket 26. Within this gap a compression spring 46 is loosely mounted on the pin to press the bracket toward the extension 42 of the base plate so as to maintain the nose 36 in the hole 44. When it is desired to swing the bracket 26 to a position approximately parallel to the base plate, as indicated in broken lines in Figure 4, the locking nose 36 can be disengaged from the hole M by pushing the bracket 25 manually along the axis of the hinge pin so as to compress the spring 46. When the bracket is then rocked in one direction or the other and released, the locking nose will engage under the lower edge 48 of the extension 42 to hold the bracket and wheel assembly in its folded position against the face of the suit-case. When the bracket and wheel assemblies are thus folded against the case, they project to a very short distance therefrom and, hence, the extra stowage space required by the suit-case is relatively small.-

The bracket and wheel assembly is detachably locked in place on the anchor plate [2 by a suitable elongated wire spring 50 which is mounted on the base plate, as indicated in Figures and 6. This spring has an end portion which is gripped in a struck-up loop 52 of the base plate. The other end portion is curled like a pig's tail at 56, the extremity 58 of the spring projecting parallel to the axis of the curl to engage as a latch in a notch 60 in the edge of inturned flange l6 of the anchor plate. The latch 58 can be disengaged from the notch 60 either horizontally or vertically. Pressure of a finger tip against the coil 56 will readily move the latch 58 horizontally from the notch 60 to release the base plate so that the wheel and bracket assembly can be removed from the anchor plate. When the base plate is inserted in between the inturned flanges l4 and [6, the latch 58 meets the end edge of the flange I6, is cammed vertically downward so that it slides along the under face of the flange until it gets to the notch 60, whereupon it springs up into the notch to lock the base plate in place. The length of the spring 58 makes it easy to' displace the latch 58 horizontally from the notch 60 by pressure against the coil 56. To prevent too easy vertical displacement of the latch from the notch, the spring is stiffened in that plane by a confining tongue 62 which is struck up from the base plate and engages the spring near its mid-point.

By mounting anchor plates on a number of suit-cases, the wheel assemblies can be shifted from one suit-case to another in a few moments. When the assemblies have been removed from the anchor plates, the latter occupy a negligible additional space.

I claim:

A wheel assembly for a suitcase or the like, comprising a flanged anchor plate, a base plate having an intermediate portion bent out of the plane of the base plate and curled to form a hollow cylinder parallel to the longitudinal axis of the base plate, said base plate also having an end flap bent at right angles to the plane thereof and with a hole therein, a bracket consisting of two preformed pieces of sheet metal permanently secured together, said pieces being formed to provide two aligned hollow cylinders to act with the hollow cylinder of the base plate as hinge elements, a hinge pin fitted in the three said cylinders, said metal pieces also including a locking nose normally engaged in said hole and a pair of spaced parallel arms, a wheel revolubly mounted between said arms, spring means yieldingly maintaining said locking nose in said hole,

and a spring mounted on said base plate and re leasably engaging said anchor plate to lock the wheel assembly together.

FRANCIS W. DAVIS.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,681,665 Haynes Aug. 21, 1928 1,890,731 Johnson Dec. 13, 1932 2,248,410 Moeller July 8, 1941 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 889,718 France Jan. 18, 1944 

